re: London Eats

I live near London, so tend to try all sorts of food, however, if I was coming from the US and visiting, I would skip all Mediterranean. Yeah it's tasty and all, but we have those back in the states, and they're just as good.

Things you can't get back home or that you can but pale in comparison are: British/French/Spanish/Russian/Polish/German

- Fernandez & Wells
- Quality Chop House
- Pastaio
- The Golden Hind (F&C)
- Arthur’s
- Czechoslavakia
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
- 40 Maltby St
- Smoking Goat
- Rock & Sole Plaice
- St John
- St John Bread and Wine
- Hedone
- Gymkhana
- Tamarind
- Veeraswamy
- Dean Swift (sunday roast)
- Regency Cafe (full english breakfast add black pudding)
- Quo Vadis
- Pieminister
- Azou
- Waterloo Bar (Sunday Roast)
- Otto's Restaurant
- Jose
- Brunswick House
- Pitt Cue (strange Brit interpretation of BBQ)
- Koya Bar


Non Restaurants:
Pierre Herme for Macarons and chocolates
Aux Pains de Papy for Croissant
Gails Bakery
Le Pain Quotidien
Kova Patisserie (Japanese Bakery)
L'ETO (great desserts)
St John Bakery (donuts and breads)
Fatties Bakery
Nordic Bakery
Paul A Young (chocolates)
Pierre Marcolini (chocolates)
Maitre Choux (eclairs)
Paxton and Whitfield (cheese)
Neal Yard Dairy (cheese)
Androuet (cheese)
Fabrique Bakery (great coffee drinks too)
Lanark Coffee
The Association (coffee)
Origin Coffee
Workshop Coffee
Alchemy Coffee
Ozone Coffee
Lyle's (a great restaurant, but I'll get the high quality coffee at the bar and use the free wifi)



Just a tip, Europeans don't have high grade/diverse coffee by and large, they just have really good coffee drinks based mostly on espresso. I try to point out the ones similar to back home.

I like to recommend the Fullers Brewery tour as a must. Classic Brewery and a great tour (best part is all you can drink for an hour after the tour) The beer is better than you ever had it in a bottle back home. It's a £15 uber ride from central London

Honestly, you HAVE to do a full english breakfast at Regency Cafe. Stand in line, hear the lady yell the orders.

Quo Vadis, Smoking Goat, St John, St John Bread and Wine, and Hedone (fanciest/smallest portions) all standout.

Also, while you're walking around, stop by Pieminister for a pie.

If you're out late and want fish and chips, other than Rock & Sole Plaice, Golden Union is also near all the drinking spots in SOHO if you're around there.

What part of the city will you be in? I have some good pubs in most areas.

Indian food in Soho is a must.

JW Steakhouse was pretty damn good cut of meat, kind of pricey but worth it

That's a hell of a list. What are your thoughts on Veeraswamy? Best Indian I've ever had.

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Staying near Hyde Park so any pub recommendations would be really welcomed.

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Cask Pub in Pimlico, SW, has a great beer and whiskey selection. Fairly close to Hyde Park.

A couple things, as far as pubs go if someone recommends a specific pub definitely get the exact name and address. There are soooo many pubs and the names can be very very similar. If you google it and only know the street or general area, especially after a couple of pints, you could easily go to the wrong one as a tourist. Not a huge deal, just keep that in mind.

Also, I know I'm in the minority here but I'm just not huge on eating Indian or anything else until you get tired of British food. I know full well it's part of their history and yadda yadda, but if I wanted Indian food I'd go to India. If you are only there for a week or two I prefer to over indulge in British food.

I had skate, like stingray, at a modest pub in the country side and it was one of the best fish dishes I've ever had anywhere. Broiled with a caper sauce, they say some people make scallops from punched out stingray and this tasted exactly like scallops. It was phenomenal.

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Also, I know I'm in the minority here but I'm just not huge on eating Indian or anything else until you get tired of British food. I know full well it's part of their history and yadda yadda, but if I wanted Indian food I'd go to India. If you are only there for a week or two I prefer to over indulge in British food.

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I agree with that when it comes to Mediterranean food for sure. But London does some amazing elevated Indian food you can't get but in a few cities in the States.

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Staying near Hyde Park so any pub recommendations would be really welcomed.

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Hyde Park is huge and not really a neighborhood, can you be more specific? That being said some nice ones surrounding the park are: The Windsor Castle, Scarsdale Tavern, Devonshire Arms, The Hereford Arms, The Clarence, The Windmill (Best Pies!), Angel in the Fields (get the Samuel Smith beers, better than how they turnout in the bottles in the US), The Union Tavern (really good beer selection, not the largest, just all great choices)

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What are your thoughts on Veeraswamy? Best Indian I've ever had.

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Very amazing stuff, totally forgot to add it to the list, i'll edit



Another Tip: In most of the world, we don't get cask ales, try to drink as many cask ales as you can while there. They are delicious, and might just be the Nectar of the Gods. Or manna from heaven. They come out of the cask engines pictured below:

Absolutely, it's one of my favorite cities. Now that we've been talking about it, I might go this weekend, not sure yet.

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Maybe if I just link the AirBnB that would be more useful.

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Ahhh youre pretty much in Notting Hill you fancy frick! I don't go there much

Haha so Union Tavern will be a great one nearish to there


Yet Another Tip: In the UK, they have what are called Tied Houses, meaning the pub is tied to a certain brewery, and only serves those brews (plus two non-tied brews they are forced to have because Parliament said so). Then you have Free Houses which have no tied brewery. So once you've gone to a Fullers Tied House Pub, or Greene King, you will have had all the same food/brews as all the others. So if you are looking to try different foods/brews, check out some others. But by all means, if what you're wanting is to check out the atmosphere of the pub itself, that's always great to do!

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I love trying new beers so I'd hate to accidentally keep going to places that serve the same thing.

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I was a young college guy the first time I went to London, and I thought the city sucked as a beer city. Ends up I kept going to Greene King pubs all over the city

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We'd also like to do one "nicer" meal while we're there. Any of the Michelin star restaurants you'd recommend over the others?

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That place Lyle's I mentioned earlier is pretty great. Same with St. John Bread & Wine, Noble Rot, Quo Vadis, Fernandez & Wells, Gymkhana

Great tip on the grocery store. It appears we'll have a nice enough kitchen that I plan on making breakfast there in the mornings (with an exception or two to try out some restaurants), so I'll definitely go there to stock up on supplies.

Did you like the area and find it convenient? Again, pardon my ignorance, never been to London and it's so spread out.

Would you think going to the breweries is the best thing, or is popping into pubs a better way to try as many different beers as possible? Not knowing where they are located, I would just hate to spend too much time traveling all across the city to get from brewery to brewery.